


Arroz Valenciana

by makeshiftrolley



Series: The Dance of the Two Left Feet [1]
Category: Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Colonialism, Food, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-13
Updated: 2017-09-13
Packaged: 2018-12-27 19:38:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 915
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12087960
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/makeshiftrolley/pseuds/makeshiftrolley
Summary: "How strange was it that two people from two countries divided by an ocean could share the same memories."(Jean cooks something for Reyes.)





	Arroz Valenciana

**Author's Note:**

> Again cross-posted from my tumblr. I thought it deserved its own story instead of putting it in my drabble collection. It is more personal than my other fics with a lot of references to Filipino culture and history. End notes explain some of those if you're interested.

When Reyes returned to his apartment, Jean had already settled himself in the kitchen. He had a pot with rice mixed with coconut milk boiling on a back burner.

Reyes leaned on the kitchen counter. “What are you making?” he asked.

“Arroz Valenciana,” Jean said, “it’s a rice dish, mixed with meat and bell peppers.”

Reyes chuckled. “We had that too, except we don’t use coconut milk or…fish sauce” He squinted at the packet labelled such.

“It’s going to be good. Trust me!” Jean said. He ripped said packet and dumped the contents into the pot. It was powder unlike the flavourful liquid they had back home. “Or as good as I can make it with the substitutes.”

He stirred the rice, folding it until it was thick. Next, he dropped a spoonful of margarine to a heated pan, and added the onions. After sautéing the onions, Jean added the chopped pork, shrimp and squid. The pan crackled as the flavours mixed together. No doubt, the aroma would linger in Reyes’ apartment for days.

“My mother made it whenever our neighbours invited us over,” Reyes mused fondly. “She never made anything else-”

“-because it had everything, didn’t it? Rice, meat and vegetables?” Jean continued. He glanced at Reyes who smiled in agreement. “My lola made it for us whenever we visited Earth.”

How strange was it that two people from two countries divided by an ocean could share the same memories. All because centuries ago, some people decided they had the right to topple civilizations. Magellan used a strait in Chile to cross the Pacific Ocean, and landed in the Philippines to take it for Spain. Reyes and Jean were connected centuries before they were even born.

But wasn’t that what they did in Andromeda too? What they are doing in Andromeda? Kadara’s foundations were built on the blood of the Angara they exiled, and while an Angara sat on the throne now, the real leader was the human who ruled from the shadows.

A puppet leader. Didn’t they have those too? Manuel Quezon to their American imperialists, Jose Laurel to their Japanese overlords; their history was filled with colonists tossing them back and forth. Now, they participated in the same practice that destroyed their ancestors, and corrupted their governments.

No, it wasn’t like that. They came to Andromeda as explorers not colonists. They made peace with the Angara, worked with the Resistance against the kett.

He hoped it wasn’t like that.

When Jean finished cooking the meat, and mixed them in with the rice. He poured the mixture into a glass dish, and put it in the oven; a technique his lola taught him which was found in no other recipes

While the Arroz Valenciana baked in the oven, Jean and Reyes waited at the dining table, drinking wine Jean brought for this occasion. The taste matched the fruity aroma, sweet with a hint of citrus.  

“So you visited home a lot, Earth?” Reyes asked.

“Every year, yes. My grandparents had a place in Malolos-the Philippines. We spent our vacations there,” Jean answered. He sipped his glass, and recalled the hot summers they spent wading through the rice fields, the sweet aroma of pandesal from the market stalls, and the neon lights illuminating Barasoain Church. They were fond memories. Malolos was much of a home to Jean as the Citadel.

“What about you, you ever visited Earth?” Jean shot the question back at him.

Reyes stared him for a moment, sipping his wine. When he finally spoke, his expression was solemn.

“Once. I took my mother back to Santiago in Chile before I left.”

He sipped his wine before speaking, “I had an entire family there-cousins, aunts, uncles and grandparents. Family I never knew because my parents never took me back.”

Jean reached for his hand across the table. He and Gabriela were lucky their grandparents insisted on bringing them home.

“Mother said there was nothing for me there,” Reyes continued, “she said I was born in Santiago but I was not from Santiago.”

“I didn’t believe her, until I was there myself, and my cousins talked to me differently.”

Jean shared this too. In Malolos, people gossiped about them as if they knew not a word in Tagalog. Looked down on them as if they knew nothing of the culture they were raised in. Or they gave them privileges; spoke to them sweetly while mistreating another because he and Gabriela were from the Citadel.

They were all foreigners to lands that were supposed to be theirs-Reyes, Gabriela and him.

The oven rang, signaling the arroz valenciana was finished. Jean took the dish out. The aroma reminded him so much of their villa in Malolos. The table was already set with dinner plates and utensils. He served them a large heaping of rice each. Jean watched Reyes have a few bites of the arroz valenciana.

“So, how was it?” Jean asked, his plate was barely touched.

“I never thought arroz a la valenciana would be sticky,” Reyes said. He had a few more spoonfuls of the rice. 

“Oh no, I liked it. It’s good,” Reyes added when Jean looked crestfallen. “It’s just different from what I grew up with.”

But how much different were they? They were the children of space; born to a time when humans have conquered the galaxy. And they were the descendants of people who were conquered. 

“Thank you for doing this,” Reyes smiled.

“I’m glad you enjoyed it.”

**Author's Note:**

> Lola - Tagalog for grandmother; used as an honorific
> 
> Ferdinand Magellan - a Portuguese explorer who wants to find the Spice Islands (the Maluku Islands in Indonesia) for Spain. Credited to be the first person to circumnavigate the world which he didn’t really. I mean for one, he died before returning to Spain. His voyage was completed by Juan Sebastian Elcano. For another, some people have gone it years before this dude was even born.
> 
> The strait I mentioned is aptly named the Strait of Magellan which is in the Southern tip of Chile. 
> 
> Manuel Quezon - the president of the Philippines when it was a Commonwealth to America. Considered the Father of the Philippine language. I don’t remember when I read it but a lot of his critics say that he was very much pro-American interests over PH ones. 
> 
> Jose Laurel - the president of the Philippines during the Japanese occupation
> 
> Comments and kudos are appreciated!
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](https://thevetranyxs.tumblr.com)


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